Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/301

 When the log was completely consumed inside and outside, the hole, emptied of the cinders and ashes, was very hot, so the pieces of the elephant's flesh, wrapped in aromatic leaves, were laid at the bottom of this improvised furnace, and covered with the hot embers. Then Joe placed a second log over all, and when the wood was burned out, the meat was done to a turn.

Then Joe took the dinner from the oven, placed it upon green leaves, and laid the repast in the center of a meadow-like space. He brought the biscuits, brandy, and coffee, and fetched some fresh and sparkling water from a neighboring stream.

The feast thus sent up was pleasant to behold, and Joe, without vanity, thought that it would be very good to eat.

"Here," he said to himself, "here is a journey without danger, meals when you choose, and sleep when you like: what can a man want more? And that good Mr. Kennedy did not want to come!"

Doctor Ferguson, for his part, was devoting himself to a thorough examination of his balloon. It did not appear to have suffered by the storm, the taffetas and gutta-percha had resisted wonderfully. Taking the actual distance from the ground, and calculating the ascensional force of the balloon, he perceived with satisfaction that the hydrogen was still in the same volume. The envelope up to this time had remained impermeable.

It was only five days since the travelers had quitted Zanzibar, the pemmican had not been cut, the store, of biscuit and preserved meat was sufficient for a long period, and they had only to renew their reserve of water. The tubes and the coil appeared to be in perfect order; thanks to their india-rubber joints, they yielded to all the oscillations of the balloon.

Having finished his inspection, the doctor put his notes in order. He made a most successful sketch of the surrounding country, with the immense prairie as far as the eye could reach, the forest, and the balloon standing motionless over the body of the enormous elephant.

At the end of the two hours Kennedy returned with a string of partridges and a haunch of venison cut from the oryx—a sort of gemsbok, the most agile species of ante-